Skip Gorman's Audioblog: Misplaced trust

Tuesday

May 6, 2014 at 3:00 AMMay 6, 2014 at 3:30 AM

By Skip Gorman

Here’s another weekly potpourri of thoughts and observations about breaking news and Valley things both great and small ...This AudioBlog is brought to you by naiveté, nature's way of providing Funny Fail YouTube content (while sounding French!). Yes, naiveté. Our built-in capacity to be stupid and cute all at the same time. We even defend it: “Naive you are / If you believe / Life favors those / Who aren’t naive.” - Piet Hein Measure L was passed on June 5, 2012. It was a local exercise in civic trust and self-sacrifice to improve our deteriorating streets hereabouts. For the price of a three-quarters of one percent increase in our sales tax (for five years) we were assured that our streets would finally get some much-needed attention. And just to hold the city’s feet to the fire, the citizens’ Measure L Oversight Committee was formed to keep the whole enterprise honest. A local firebrand was put in charge and, like the mating of elephants, committee activity began with great dusty noise and grunting fury. “But dude, that was, like, two years ago!” And so far our streets are worse than ever. And, although I’m not sure what I expect to come out of the committee (report-wise), I sense we may just get to see all the stuff that our Measure L money was spent on that didn’t include streets. And what do we do about that? Can we cancel Measure L (especially sense other street funding has materialized)? If we don’t, it will run on for three more years. Lowering the sales tax by three-quarters of a percent sounds good to me. Chalk it up to experience. And as long as I’m bellyaching, how about those Dodgers? I mean that literally, because I just don’t know. See, they are no longer on television (dammit!). We loved to watch almost every game while getting the lyrical words-eye-view from Vin Scully on any number of television channels. We ate munchies and enjoyed the pitching of Clayton Kershaw, waiting for Kemp to get hot and for Puig to grow up. It really didn’t matter that they missed the playoffs. It was just great fun to watch. Great fun! But this year (Scully’s swan song year!) Magic Johnson and company decided to low-bridge loyal fans like us and go exclusive with content provider Time Warner, which effectively put watching the Dodgers out of our reach. I guess he has a right to chase a buck, but it was a bush-league, tone-deaf, knuckle-headed move. The bad karma will be such that, from now on, no team that Magic Johnson is associated with will win any championships for the next 100 years.And (really wallowing in it now) I think it’s time that someone took note of the militarization of the BLM. It seems that they have traded-in their affable Andy Griffith persona for that of a SWAT team (nation-wide). Why did this happen? Is it personality related or is this just another manifestation of a growing thuggishness within all government agencies? Sadly, this is not just government bureaucracy bashing. I’ve seen it as have others. I’ve spoken to the cupcake lady and the firewood guy. Listen, that steel desert tortoise which I welded climbing up the “Denny’s Signpost” may be the last one on earth with this BLM in charge. It’s clear that the tortoise would be far better protected behind an expanded Base fence line rather than at the mercy of dirt bikers. I was sorry (but not surprised) to read that the request for Naval Base stewardship of adjacent land was spurned by the BLM. I know that we are a little red island in a vast blue ocean (who doesn’t?). Politically, we are as vulnerable as the desert tortoise and justifiably are now feeling a bit surrounded. Just remember to calmly and respectfully (no matter what!) call the BLM guys “Sir” and keep your hands where they can see them. And finally, I sigh with hopelessness when I think of the water situation around here. Our water supply aquifer has been dropping one foot a year for the last 25 years. Yet pistachio orchards (large ones!) are being planted just north of Inyokern. Some detached bureaucratic fool in Bakersfield has allowed large commercial agriculture out here, and the carpetbaggers are lining up. Our green lawns and lush shrubbery reflect our obliviousness to this truly dire situation. Everybody should read about Easter Island. There’s a real lesson there. That has been this week’s AudioBlog column, and this is Skip Gorman (skippergorman@gmail.com) returning you all now back to a quieter and gentler place ...